This invention relates generally to a machine for receiving green or dry cores from a turf aeration machine that removes plugs or cores of earth from the ground, such as is done on golf courses to enhance the growth of the grasses, and removing the earth from the vegetation thatch. This invention relates more specifically to an apparatus that utilizes a rotating scrubbing action to reduce the cores to the vegetation thatch and return the earth to the ground, while collecting the remaining vegetation thatch.
Aeration machines are well known in the art. These machine drive a hollow tine into the ground to create a plug of earth that is lifted above the surface of the ground and deposited on the surface. Generally, green cores, i.e. cores of earth freshly elevated from the moist ground, have to be dried for 2 to 4 hours, depending on the weather conditions, before the earthen portion can be removed from the vegetation thatch on top of the plug and the associated root system. It is preferable to return the earthen portion of the cores to the ground; however, the organic matter needs to be removed from the aerated site. Alternatively, the cores can be removed from the aerated site and taken to a remote location for subsequent handling.
While the task of aerating is a highly labor intensive job, the cost of clean-up after aeration is as great as aeration itself. Known core harvesting machines, such as found in U.S. Pat. No. 1,368,113 and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,410,350, suffer from a substantial problem of plugging, particularly if the cores are not adequately dried before collecting and harvesting. If the cores are not dried adequately, the moist earthen portion from the cores plug the core harvesting machines. Under some conditions, the cores can be dried too much and the earth cannot be broken-up properly for satisfactory disposal thereof.
Using golf courses as an exemplary environment typically utilizing aeration to improve the quality of the turf on which the players play, it is undesirable to hinder play for the aeration process. Golf courses and their members do not want their pastime interrupted by maintenance crews and, as a result, the aeration is intentionally done in as short a time as possible. The cores can be picked-up and removed from the ground and taken to a remote location, but this process is very labor intensive and requires the transportation of the green cores from the course. Even cores temporarily left on the ground immediately following the aeration process can be run over by the aeration machine on its next pass, creating problems with a clean pick-up of the cores. Preferably, the cores are not left on the ground for an indeterminate period, even in areas not highly frequented, as mowing becomes complicated due to the cores plugging the mowers and prematurely dulling mower blades.
Current core destroying technology involves the utilization of a machine commonly referred to as a "verti-cutter". This machine is provided with a series of vertically oriented blades that are passed over the surface of the ground to slice cores into finer particles. If the cores are still wet, also know as being "green", the verti-cutter can become plugged or wrapped with the vegetation thatch, associated root system and moist earth that is separated from the rest of the core and carried around the vertical blades.
Other known core destroying machines use a cylindrical rotating screen to separate the earth from the organic matter. Such machines require extensive screening area and become quite cumbersome in both handling and operation. Furthermore, the longitudinally extending rotary screen requires a consolidation of the swath of cores into a transversely smaller area, resulting in a dense collection of cores to be destroyed and a concentrated distribution of earth discharged back to the ground. Also, machines using a rotary screen are difficult to couple to an aeration machine so as to receive green cores directly therefrom.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a wet/dry core harvesting machine that can be operated immediately following an aerator, or even receiving the green cores directly from the aerator, to reduce the wet cores and return the moist earth directly to the ground, while collecting the remaining vegetation thatch. It would be further desirable if such a wet core harvesting machine could be operated at night when golf courses are not being utilized to completely eliminate the interruption of play on golf courses due to the aeration process. It would also be desirable that the core harvesting machine be equally operable on wet or dry cores.
It would be particularly desirable to provide a core harvesting machine that could be coupled with an aeration machine to receive aeration cores directly therefrom to permit the combination aerator/core destroyer in one pass across the ground to aerate the ground, to eject the cores into a core destroying component, to destroy the green cores to return the earth to the ground in the form of a top dressing, and to collect the organic matter. Since the green cores never need to be deposited on the ground and dried for any predetermined period of time, such an operation would not be sensitive to the time of day during which the aeration is being accomplished. As a result, aeration could be accomplished by such a machine at night without interruption of operation of a golf course or other appropriate facility.
One such core destroyer machine can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,336, issuing on Oct. 6, 1998, to Kenneth R. Underhill. This machine generally solves the problems identified above with a machine that utilizes a reciprocating scrubbing mechanism co-operable with a stepped screen member to remove the earthen portion of green aeration cores from the root thatch, returning the earth to the surface of the ground and collecting the thatch. While this machine successfully solved the problem of destroying green aeration cores, it is desirable to simplify the operation and the structure of the machine and to permit the machine to be coupled with any aeration machine irrespective of the manufacturer.